Adam Laxman

Adam Laxman (1766-1806) was a lieutenant of the Imperial Russian Army and one of the first Russian envoys to Tokugawa Shogunate-era Japan, which he had visited in 1792.

Biography
Adam Laxman was born in 1766 to a family of Swedes in Finland, and he served in the Imperial Russian Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. In October 1792, he was sent to Tokugawa Shogunate-era Japan to return two Japanese castaways to their homeland. Laxman and his crew arrived at the port of Hakodate, and he negotiated the return of the castaways in exchange for a hard-fought trade agreement. This agreement allowed for one Russian ship to be docked at Nagasaki, and it was the first treaty opening Japan to foreign trade. Laxman died in 1806.